Justicar Trueheart was actually better, +2+2 and it was 6 mana rather than 7 and literally nobody played it. Comparing it to Bloodreaver Gul'dan which is 3 more mana but you get both druid effects combined, you don't take face damage when hitting a minion AND you spawn up too 7 demons... This should have both effects combined not choose one and it would still be way worse than the Bloodreaver Gul'dan hero power as it can't bypass taunts and makes you self-SMOrc.

well if it is so bad, then why does everyone play it? because its value, you can get 2 free removals or 2 distractions, you can finish off minions or your opponent with 3 attack or defend yourself with 3 armor,

well if it is so bad, then why does everyone play it? because its value, you can get 2 free removals or 2 distractions, you can finish off minions or your opponent with 3 attack or defend yourself with 3 armor,

+1+1 = 2. 9 mana for +1 is weak. Justicar was +2+2 = 4. It was better. I don't run this in my jade druid and every time my opponents plays this it's a free win because my 7 mana of jades destroys their 7 mana do nothing in tempo and they die before they even get the time to take a breather rather than react to what I did last turn and never even get a chance to hero power. Literally without exaggeration I have not lost a single jade mirror where my opponent played this card.

I don't see any justification for this card being choose one rather than both effects like Malfurion (power wise) obviously they only did it to keep up with the druid theme but they highly undershot. They're the same hero power but one is two times better base stats and then add the taunt bypass and the no self-SMOrc and it becomes objectively at least 3-4 times better.

And like I said in my original comment, I've got no idea why everyone plays it. But my best guess is that they're all net decking noobs who are too scared to change even one card in the deck they copied off a stream. They probably saw some streamer testing this card and ran with it.

Second guess would be that they're enveloped in the hype of death knights that are incredibly good like Frost Lich Jaina and so they overestimate the power of this card because "hey, it's a death so I guess it's gotta be good by definition, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

Actually scratch that, I'd say those are the two different groups that play this card. The neck decking noobs who don't have the confidence to change anything out of 30 cards and the people who overestimate it based on it being a death knight.

This card is played because it helps vs other match ups. Of course you're going to win the mirror if your opponent plays this because this card doesn't win you the mirror. Yet I guarantee you those same jade druids have a higher win rate vs aggro than you for example. This DK is good because it's flexible. Yes Gul'dan is obviously better than this but Gul'dan also relies on having a deck built around the hero and having to rely on a bunch of demons dying prior to it as well as spending your entire turn playing the hero. Gul'dan is arguably the best DK out of all of them anyways so of course he's going to be better. That doesn't mean that Malfurion is necessarily bad though. He wins you games that don't involve the mirror. So as said if your opponent plays this in the mirror he's more likely to lose as he's using his turn playing this rather than ramping up jades which is how you win the mirror in the first place